The risky short bet was made in anticipation of Ethereum’s Pectra upgrade as Ether fell nearly 11% amid growing global trade concerns.
An anonymous cryptocurrency trader has accumulated almost $68 million in unrealized profit by shorting Ether amid its recent price decline.
According to blockchain data from Hypurrscan, the trader opened a 50x leveraged short position when Ether (ETH) was trading at $3,176, on Feb. 1. As of 9:06 am UTC on March 5, the position had almost $68 million in unrealized profit.
Shorting involves “borrowing” the underlying cryptocurrency from a broker, selling it at the current price, and then repurchasing it once the price falls — a strategy used by traders to bet on the price decline of an asset.
Hulk Hogan, professional wrestling legend, passed away yesterday, prompting a swarm of new meme coins and NFTs. Many of these HULK tokens quickly trended, but the largest coin proved to be a rug pull scam.
Last year, Hogan’s X (formerly Twitter) account was reportedly hacked to promote a fake meme coin. Since yesterday, this defunct token has also seen heightened activity.
Scammers Take Advantage of Hulk Hogan’s Popularity
The meme coin sector will take any opportunity to launch a hot new token, and legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan’s death is certainly no exception.
Yesterday, the famous figure passed away, prompting the immediate appearance of a “Hulk Hogan Tribute” token. Watchdogs quickly clocked HULK as a scam, but it nonetheless reached a $7 million market cap before flatlining.
HULK (Hulk Hogan Tribute) Market Cap. Source: Dexscreener
Real-life tragedies frequently become fodder for these scams, so this all seems pretty straightforward.
However, this scam is not the only Web3 asset with Hulk Hogan’s branding to take off today. For example, traders also released NFT collections in his honor, and a variety of meme coins are currently live in the DEX ecosystem.
None, however, took off like Hulk Hogan Tribute and its social media bot campaigns.
Interestingly, Hogan’s own X account was hacked last year to promote a scam token. Hogan’s team quickly regained control and deleted the posts, and the “Hulkamania” HULK token underwent a similar rug pull.
Today, however, traders resurrected the token, enjoying one last boost of activity after the wrestler’s death.
As the chart shows, this HULK token also collapsed, but its activity is very different from the rug pull scam. Ironically, last year’s rug pull proved significantly more honest than an asset that launched less than 24 hours ago.
Sure, it only reached one-seventh of the market cap, but its slower decline and dead cat bounces left several opportunities for profit-taking.
On several occasions, retail investors have continued trading meme coins even after the initial project turned out to be fraudulent. Evidently, Hulk Hogan’s death also prompted this activity in addition to outright rug pull scams.
There’s a possible lesson here regarding the meme coin market. It can be difficult or impossible to warn investors about manufactured hype bubbles, but authentic community enthusiasm does exist.
A senior official from Russia’s Finance Ministry has called for the development of stablecoins linked to foreign currencies after wallets connected to Russian users and holding USDT were frozen last month.
The move comes as US-backed stablecoins dominate global liquidity and Washington moves closer to introducing new regulations for the sector.
Russia Might Enter the Stablecoin Market
The ongoing pro-regulatory shift is drawing in new projects targeting the US market. Russia, facing growing financial restrictions, sees a digital alternative as increasingly necessary.
A ruble-backed token could reduce the region’s reliance on USDT and USDC, which both track the US dollar. Such a shift would support Russia’s long-term effort to move away from dollar-based trade.
Elvira Nabiullina, head of Russia’s central bank, remains against using crypto for domestic payments. However, she confirmed that several Russian firms are testing international crypto transfers as part of a government-led trial.
Russia has explored stablecoin initiatives before. In 2023, its central bank reportedly discussed a gold-backed digital currency with Iran, intended for cross-border use and positioned as an alternative to the dollar.
The urgency of Russia’s stablecoin push increased after Tether blocked wallets on the Garantex exchange, freezing assets worth more than 2.5 billion rubles ($30 million). The incident occurred shortly after Garantex was hit with European Union sanctions.
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) recorded its largest single-day outflow on May 30, with investors pulling $430.8 million from the fund.
This marked the end of a 31-day inflow streak and the first net withdrawal in over seven weeks.
BlackRock’s IBIT Still Dominates Bitcoin ETF Inflows
Before this reversal, IBIT attracted $6.5 billion in May alone, making it one of the strongest months since its debut in January 2024.
IBIT’s rapid ascent is not limited to the crypto space. Within 18 months, it climbed into the top 25 US-listed ETFs by assets under management, which many have described as unprecedented.
At the same time, the fund ranks among the top five ETFs for year-to-date inflows across over 4,200 US-listed funds.
IBIT hits new monthly record for inflows…
Nearly $6.5bil in May.
Has now taken in money 31 of past 32 trading days overall.
“What a run over the past 30+ days though. IBIT now pushing $ 70 billion in assets < less than 17 months since launch. Not sure I have words to describe how ridiculous this is,” Geraci stated.
Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas highlighted that IBIT has recently absorbed more than 100% of net Bitcoin ETF inflows. This marks an unusual shift from its typical 70% share.
The IBIT vs Everyone Else flow disparity is interesting. Normally IBIT takes in 70% of the net inflows but lately it’s over 100%. My theory: the latest rally was more an institutional buying spree than retail (perhaps sparked by the decoupling and lessened vol). https://t.co/9mNLCUaOEz
